A typical fuel supply unit for a vehicle includes a steel fuel flange configured to be sealed to a wall of a fuel tank. The flange is interconnected with a fuel pump assembly by a pair of metal struts. As shown in FIG. 1, typically, metal mounts, cups or brackets 10 are used to secure the struts 12 in place with respect to a bottom of the flange 14. In addition, to ground the metal struts 12 with respect to the flange 14, a separate metal bracket 16 is employed, providing a conductive path between the metal strut 12 and the steel flange.
The struts 12 are typically secured to the brackets 16, and/or mounts 10 using a welding process that increases costs of assembly. In addition, the flange supplier must deal with the struts extending from the flange, which increases the complexity of shipping the flange, and increases the number of parts at the flange supplier. Furthermore, the reliability of the strut-flange connections needs to be improved.
Accordingly, there is a need provide a plastic strut mount structure for a fuel supply unit, while maintaining a ground connection between the struts and a flange.